The present invention relates generally to management of client workstations in a large wide area computer network and, more particularly, to monitoring of client workstations to keep workstations current with operating system and antivirus software updates.
A large enterprise will typically have a wide area network (WAN) with many thousands of workstations that are connected to various servers in the network. Managing operating system updates to combat computer viruses in this environment is very problematic since large numbers of these workstations are desktop computers that are left running when the employees that use them leave work. The employees simply log back in the following work day and the desktop does not get rebooted on a regular basis. Regularly restarting a computer activates program updates and software patches that protect personal computers and the network form viruses. Problems with computer memory and applications locking up also can be attributable to failure to reboot a computer on a regular basis.
The traditional approach to the problem has been to educate employees to reboot their workstations on a daily basis, but this approach has had limited success in many large enterprises.
Thus, there is a need for an automated approach to workstation update and maintenance to solve the maintenance and virus proliferation problems on an enterprise wide area network caused by a lack of regular workstation reboots, and that does not require the cooperation of individual computer users. There is significant business value in the avoidance of Information Technology (IT) support center phone calls and desktop support staff visits caused by failure to have the operating system updates and other software patches installed on a timely basis.